


Just Like in the Vids

by ariellesallee



Series: The Adventures of Liv Shepard (Side Stories) [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: AU, F/M, Mass Effect 3, Paragade (Mass Effect), Post-Mass Effect 3, Spacer (Mass Effect), Vanguard (Mass Effect), War Hero (Mass Effect)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 10:32:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3171582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariellesallee/pseuds/ariellesallee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard’s attempt at a “romantic” proposal doesn’t go through, but she winds up saying the words anyway. Set post-ME3, with an as-yet-unwritten ending to ME3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Like in the Vids

**Author's Note:**

> This is very definitely not-canon to the main line of The Adventures of Liv Shepard, but it's very in-character for Liv. It's nice and romantic and fluffy.

Shepard has given a lot of thought to how she’s going to propose to Garrus. She’s thought about it a hundred times, gone over a thousand options. Lying in bed at night, curled up against the warm pliable toughness of the turian’s chestplates, she has thought, _I need to marry this man._ While staring at the lights streaking past the skylight over the bed she’s thought about how to pop the question. On shuttle rides after missions, while part of her brain is composing the report to Admiral Hackett another part stares at the turian in blue-and-silver armor across from her and thinks _I need to marry this man._ That part, the “Liv” part, considers scenarios while the other part, the “Commander Shepard” part, plans a report.

The scenario she finally settles on is, she thinks, quite romantic. Suitable for the vids, really. She’ll take him to their favorite spot on the Citadel, atop the skybridge on the Presidium, with a picnic and a couple of rings. There’ll be one for her and one for him, she’s got them all planned, in symbolic colors with metals from both homeworlds. She’ll ask him there, in that spot where they affirmed they wanted to be exclusively “together.” In a perfect world, she would make the picnic herself, but she has conceded to reality enough in her daydreams to admit she’s not that great of a cook. She’ll probably have to buy the food.

But otherwise, the idea is wonderful and perfect and romantic. That’s how it’s supposed to be, right? That’s what the vids say to do, that’s the sort of thing other people moon over. Most of her good friends are not great at romance themselves—Liara isn’t, Miranda certainly isn’t, Shepard’s having to coach EDI as it is—but Tali is always a reliable barometer on these things. So Shepard tells Tali the plan and the quarian’s voice quavers and Shepard can swear she’s probably getting teary-eyed. It’s not until she overhears a very drunken Tali going on about a “threesome” with her and Garrus that it occurs to the Commander that maybe the quarian has a crush on her boyfriend. Or her. Or both.

It’s hard to tell. Shepard’s not good with this stuff.

She keeps thinking she should do it, though, every time they hit the Citadel. _This could be the last time,_ she thinks. _We should get married. I want to be with him forever, this tells the world we are together until we die. So why not?_

It doesn’t happen, and it doesn’t happen; there’s always more important things to deal with, and it’s not like getting married would change anything between _them_ really. And then they’re on Earth and saying goodbye. They’re talking about babies and meeting in bars in heaven and the words don’t come.

"You’ll never be alone," Shepard says instead. She means the same thing she’s thought all those times she planned out the proposal.

And then… somehow, miraculously, the Reapers are gone and Shepard is still alive, and so is Garrus. It’s not a thing she ever expected, and there are complications— _oh so many_ complications—but she’s _alive._ They can have a life together, now. They can tell the galaxy they are an exclusive… thing, whether or not the galaxy really understands what they have together.

It doesn’t happen on the Citadel, though.

She’s lying in the med bay, body broken and bruised, recovering from a gut wound and burns and falling and just so very much damage that even her reconstructed body and modern medicine can’t heal it all very fast. Maybe, in fact, it’s _because_ of that reconstructed body. Maybe she’s had her “one time” and she gets no more miracles. Maybe she has to fight harder for everything now. If so, she’s fine with that.

Garrus comes in, still bandaged himself, and comes over to hold her hand. They talk awkwardly for a few minutes. Awkward, because what do you say when you thought you said goodbye forever? But slowly, not awkward at all, because they know each other so well by now.

The words slip out of their own accord. She didn’t mean to say them. It’s not the right time, it’s not the right place. But they come out anyway, desperate, like she’s afraid if she doesn’t say them now something will come between them again.

"Marry me," Shepard says, and she realizes that it’s the right time after all.

"W-what?" Garrus blinks, clearly surprised. "I didn’t think you… wanted that sort of…"

"You heard me." She’s grown bolder now. She smiles. "I want you for the rest of forever. Marry me."

It’s not the way the vids say it’s supposed to be, or her family, or her friends who “get” romance. It’s certainly not a turian-style proposal. But Shepard doesn’t really care about any of that when it comes down to it. She just wants the ritual and the promises, to solidify this thing they have.

For an answer, Garrus leans down to put his forehead on hers and whispers, “Of course.” What other answer could there have been?

Something occurs to Shepard and she laughs, and says, “I’m glad humans don’t usually do the name-changing thing anymore. I mean… can you imagine changing your name to Garrus Shepard?”

He laughs too. Somehow, she knows they’ll get through anything. Somehow, she knows everything will be alright. They’ll be together; he’ll always have her back, and she’ll make sure he’s never alone.


End file.
